Mr. Benjamin asserts that, "When he rather defensively stated in 1913 that '. . . the score complete is grand opera,' he was simply emphasizing that the format was that of true opera—i.e., all-sung—and not the typical hodgepodge entertainments that many of his contemporaries were calling 'operas' with or without irony."

Talfourd instructed, "[t] he ... poetry of operas is rarely of any value whatever; nor is coherency of plot much more important, if there be situations ... capable of suggesting the sentiment of the music"

Take the end of scene 1: the ingenue a mezzo rather than a soprano; in Slavic operas it was common for the "flighty" character to have a heavier voice than the "serious" character tells off the heroine's drunken, mother-fixated husband, then soliloquizes about her own sympathy for the heroine, but can't shake the feeling that it's not any of her business.

In a related aspect, my wife the singer and opera professor has noted that the cost of sheet music has skyrocketed because singers and students are buying far less because they can copy it easily … and consequently, the music for more and more songs and operas is out of print, because those songs and operas are less popular and sales won’t pay for even the printing costs.